The Driving Force Behind Middle East Unrest

Guest Author - Tony Daltorio

As per usual, the mainstream media is missing the primary driving force behind world events. In this case, we are talking about the political unrest and turmoil in the oil-rich areas of North Africa and the Middle East.

Don't get me wromg, political freedom is one of the main driving factors. But the spark that set all of this off is the price of food.

The cost of food has ballooned by some much (to record highs, according to the United Nations) that many people in this part of the world can no longer afford to feed themselves. And simply put, hunger feeds revolution.

In this part of the globe, the average person spends about half their meager income just to eat. And food prices this year in these countries has risen by nearly 30 percent! And with no corresponding rise in income.

Please keep in mind that the countries in this region are the biggest importers of food, especially grains, on the planet. That is because as their populations have mushroomed, their food production has remained stagnant.

Some of the rise in food prices is due simply to bad weather luck. Key food growing regions of the globe have suffered either a drought (Russia) or flooding (Australia).

Ben Bernanke - Revolutionary

However, another major cause of the sharply rising food prices globally has been the fall of the currency that most commodities are priced in. That currency is, of course, the global reserve currency - the US Dollar.

And Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve have been actively driving down the US Dollar by his massive money printing efforts. Efforts whose sole aim is to keep the casino on Wall Street going.

Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has publicly acknowledged that the inflation in developing markets is being caused by the Fed's quantitative easing policy in the United States.

Mr. Bernanke's policies are leading to the end of the global dollar standard and have led to instability in commodity prices along with instability in autocratic regimes in the strategic area of the Mideast. But he doesn't seem to care.

Mr. Bernanke was asked recently about his multi-trillion dollar money printing policies and the terrible inflationary effect it is having on global (especially developing) economies.

To be polite, Mr. Bernanke thumbed his nose at the rest of the world. He said in not so many words that the high inflation in those countries was their problem, not his. And he added that his main concern as head of the Fed was that US financial markets stay up.

Who would thought that Ben Bernanke may go down in history as one of the great revolutionaries? A revolutionary who inadvertently led revolts in countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East?